Bevan Brittan is a UK-Top 100 commercial law firm providing a
comprehensive range of legal services from offices in Birmingham,
Bristol, Leeds and London.
The firm advises businesses across construction, energy &
resource management, higher education and financial services,
complementing the firm's market leadership within housing, local
government and health & social care.
We currently employ over 600 people, including over 90 Partners, and
our award-winning teams provide construction, commercial, corporate,
property, regulatory, employment and litigation (commercial and
clinical negligence) legal advice.
Bevan Brittan is named among 'The Times Best Law Firms 2024' and has
recently either won or been shortlisted for a number of prestigious awards.
We are driven by our 4 values: Relationships, Results, Reputation and
Responsible. These give us a sense of purpose and ensure we always
work collaboratively with clients and colleagues, continually improve,
make the right choices and act with integrity.
Bevan Brittan is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes
applicants from all backgrounds.
The Team
Our Employment, Pensions and
Immigration team continues to be a market leader, going from
strength to strength across a range of sectors. Our year on year
growth means that we work with a fantastic portfolio of clients,
many of which are household names.
The team operates on a truly
national basis, providing our lawyers with the opportunity to work
with a variety of colleagues and clients. Acting mainly for
employers, our roster of clients includes national and
multi-national organisations, and we support them to improve their
employment practices and manage workforce issues, as well as
defending employment claims and seeking to mitigate risks for clients.
Bevan Brittan has strong
recognition in the independent legal directories - Chambers &
Partners and Legal 500. In both guides we are consistently ranked in
the top tier for our practices across the UK, with multiple
individuals recognised as leading lawyers.
This is a team that knows and
understands the reality of the sector which means their advice and
management of matters is effective, focused and strategic but
human in its approach -Legal 500, 2023
The Role
We are looking for a Solicitor or
Associate to join us, who will be ideally well placed to be assigned
to one of our regional locations including Birmingham, Bristol or
Leeds. We operate a very flexible hybrid working model.
As a member of the national
employment practice the primary focus of your role will be working
in the following sectors: commercial services, higher education,
financial services and housing. The wider team also has an
outstanding reputation in the health and care sectors, supporting
and advising the NHS, voluntary and independent health and care
providers as well as local/central government markets. There may be
opportunities to work in some of these areas too.
Bevan Brittan is proud of its full
service offering and embedded multi-disciplinary team approach to
supporting our clients. Building relationships, both externally with
our clients and across our internal teams, is key. The depth and
breadth of the markets in which we operate will provide the
opportunity and flexibility to work on novel and complex employment
law issues across both contentious and non-contentious matters.
With your skill and expertise, it
is envisaged that you would:
Manage your own caseload across
both contentious and non-contentious work areas
Work with and support a number
of our partner leads and colleagues across all four of our offices
Support on training and client
relationship management
You would be advising on employee
relations matters including internal
disciplinary/grievance/capability processes, reviewing policies and
procedures and contracts, advising on equalities obligations,
conduct of and/or support on Employment Tribunals, advising on TUPE
processes including inputting into drafting of commercial agreements
as well as delivering training on a broad range of employment issues
and supporting business development.
With approximately 100 new
litigation instructions every year, our Employment team's litigation
experience is second to none. Whether in the Tribunal, the EAT, the
Court of Appeal or the High Court you will have the chance to be
involved in ground-breaking employment litigation.
What we are looking for from you
The successful candidate will be
involved in providing sound, commercial employment advice and would
have the following skill set/experience:
A broad range of contentious and
non-contentious employment experience, ideally gained across one
or more of our key markets, including financial services, general
commercial, higher education, and housing
Case management of complex ET claims
Advising on employee relations
issues including settlement negotiations
Reviewing/drafting policies
Contractual and policy advice
Senior exits
Advising on
restructures/redundancy processes and TUPE issues
Undertaking transactional due
diligence, often as part of a wider corporate or commercial transaction
Some advocacy experience
desirable but not essential
Good client management skills
and an interest in business development
We offer a structured career
pathway to meet both your and our needs.
Work-life balance
Where possible, we want to offer all Bevan Brittan people flexibility
to work their week in a way that suits them - we operate a hybrid
working model based on the needs of our clients, teams and that of the
individual. Our core business hours are 9am - 5:15pm Monday to Friday,
however we are open to individuals working more flexibly around those
times and would welcome a conversation with you if you have any questions.
We offer a substantial benefits package to all employees including:
A minimum of 25 days holiday (plus the option to buy up to an
additional 5 days)
Discretionary bonus scheme
Generous pension scheme
Private medical insurance through Vitality
Biennial private health assessment through Nuffield Health
Life assurance
Access to Employee Assistance Programme
Cycle to work scheme
Responsible business
To us, being a responsible business is second nature; a core part of
Bevan Brittan's identity, running through our culture and embodied by
the clients we serve. We want to demonstrate our commitment to these
causes through actions rather than words; colleagues from across the
firm are already heavily involved, living and breathing the four
pillars of our Responsible Business strategy:
Community Engagement -Each lawyer has the
opportunity to undertake pro bono legal work for local charities and
not-for-profit organisations. We also play an active role through
our local office communities, in 2022 we fundraised and donated a
total of £80,000 to our four regional office charities, with each
charity receiving £20,000 to help fund their vital services.
Environmental Sustainability- Bevan Brittan is
proudly a carbon neutral firm. We have achieved the UN's Climate
Neutral Now accreditation and our environmental sustainability plan
is focused on achieving our net zero carbon target.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion- We have a
strong and vibrant diversity programme that gives colleagues across
the firm an opportunity to take part, led by our Equality, Diversity
& Inclusion Committee and supported by our Ambassadors, who
drive engagement in our strategy and raise awareness across the firm.
Wellbeing -We are proud of our open culture, where
colleagues feel empowered to speak openly about physical and mental
health issues and to seek out support when needed. We have trained
21 colleagues across the firm as Mental Health First Aider s and
established a programme of initiatives including our informal
'coffee with' scheme.
Collectively, these four pillars ensure we look after our colleagues'
wellbeing; offer an environment in which all can progress on merit,
regardless of personal circumstances or background; give something
back to the communities in which we work; and protect the environment.